David Axelrod: "It sounds here like @KamalaHarris is now taking something more like the @JoeBiden

[Skya Rhen]

position on school busing. So what was that whole thing at the debate all about?"

Link to tweet

David Axelrod?

[AlexSFCA]

1. it was about knowing how the media works and use it to her advantage

it worked and will probably work again. This is an important skill to have against trump.

[highplainsdem]

8. See reply 2 for a different take from Pete's senior communications advisor.

[marylandblue]

17. Pete knows how to use the media to his advantage too.

[BeyondGeography]

11. Change you can't believe in

Sounds like a winner to me.

[highplainsdem]

2. Did you see what Mayor Pete's senior communications advisor tweeted this morning?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287189365

[Skya Rhen]

3. Ooooh!

[peggysue2]

6. Whoosh!

That's an excellent response.

[R B Garr]

20. Wow! nt

[Hoyt]

4. But she's not cutting a deal with segregationists to let the local governments drag their feet

ensuring minority schools are equal and diverse.

Nor is she supporting that states's rights BS that southern white folks used to delay equal educational opportunities.

[bluewater]

10. yeah, 1972 is EXACTLY the same situation as 2019.

not.

[Hoyt]

12. There is good evidence it ought to be as important today as it was then. Segregationists were

successful in the South.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/learning/lesson-plans/still-separate-still-unequal-teaching-about-school-segregation-and-educational-inequality.html

[NYMinute]

24. I doubt voters are concerned about busing in the 1970s nt

[Hoyt]

25. Oh, lots of white vote are/were not interested in equal schools then, now, or fifty years from now.

That's the issue.

[NYMinute]

30. Dead horse. nt

[Hoyt]

32. Actually, it's not a dead horse, too many people just don't want to deal with issue.

[bluewater]

15. That kid on the right with the sign...

"All I want for Christmas is a CLEAN white school"

hmmmm, that resonates with a much more recent quote....

In the article published Wednesday, Biden is quoted evaluating presidential rivals Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, former Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois. His remarks about Obama, the only African-American serving in the Senate, drew the most scrutiny.

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/31/biden.obama/

[Lordquinton]

41. You mean it's a complex issue she's actually workign on

and Axelrod is intentionally mischaracterizing her words? That group of people crying for civility and not doing exactly that should be here to chastise him any minute now...

[msongs]

5. lol is joe gonna use the next debate to market a t shirt? nt

[Tiggeroshii]

7. This gives an opening to somebody else to make a similar display at the next debate

and actually stay true to the position while maintaining the bump. Who will it be?

[bluewater]

9. Maybe we should see what African American Democrats think?

1972...

2019...

Nothing is different in desegregation and race relations between 1972 and 2019? Really?

Weren't virulent racists oppressing African Americans, especially in the deep South, enforcing segregation and actually lynching black people back in 1972?

So maybe, just maybe, saying busing should be considered, not mandated, NOW is just a teensy tiny bit different than doing so during the height of the fight for civil rights?

I don't know.

I will defer to African American Democrats to decide.

[4now]

13. Knew she would have to back down

but didn't think it would happen so soon.

[pnwmom]

14. Biden in the 70's made statements against all busing, not just Federally mandated.

He said busing was "asinine," that that it didn't benefit a little black kid to be sitting next to a little blond kid, like his.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/politics/joe-biden-busing-kamala-harris.html

In reality, Mr. Biden was a leading opponent of busing in the Senate during the 1970s and 1980s, and his opposition went beyond the federal government’s role in the practice.

SNIP

“I oppose busing,” he said in an interview in 1975. “It’s an asinine concept, the utility of which has never been proven to me.”

“The new integration plans being offered are really just quota-systems to assure a certain number of blacks, Chicanos, or whatever in each school,” he added. “That, to me, is the most racist concept you can come up with; what it says is, ‘in order for your child with curly black hair, brown eyes and dark skin to be able to learn anything, he needs to sit next to my blond-haired, blue-eyed son.’ That’s racist! Who the hell do we think we are, that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?”

[Horizens]

27. WTF !

The glaciers are melting
Seas are rising
Alaska’s on fire
Record heat abounds
The U.S. runs concentration camps
Health care (Obamacare) is under assault
Income inequality is growing
The tax code is outrageous.
Children are being murdered in their classrooms
Executive corruption is the new norm
The justice dept. has been politicized
There’s a degenerate imbecile in the white house

And Harris et al want to debate a position Joe Biden took 2 f’ing generations ago?

WTF ….

[pnwmom]

28. She wanted to know his current position. And debates are for debating,

not just everyone standing there and laying out all the ways they agree with each other.

[Horizens]

37. Debates are for ....

Debates are for informing the electorate re your views on issues they're most concerned about today. In Nov. 2020 NO ONE is going to vote based upon Joe Biden's view on busing was 40 years ago.

[pnwmom]

38. She was asking him how he felt CURRENTLY. She knew what he stated 40 years ago

and she wanted to know if he'd revised his opinions.

And apparently he has, since in the 70's and 80's he was against all busing for desegregation, saying it was "asinine." And now he says he's only against Federally ordered desegregation.

[Horizens]

40. Irrelevant

His opinion on the issue, then or now, isn't so much as a blip the electorates radar screen. It's irrelevant in the minds of the electorate as they're concerned about much more immediate issues affecting their lives.

[pnwmom]

42. So you speak for the entire electorate? What makes this relevant

to many is that Biden wants us to believe that he'll be better at working with the other side than some of the other candidates.

Well, we don't need him to work well with the other side if that means compromising too much on Democratic principles. We saw what happened when he tried to work "with civility" on Anita Hill's confirmation. He gave away far too much to the R's, and we ended up with Clarence Thomas.

[treestar]

33. +1

How anyone thinks this was a good move, I don't know. No one in the swing states cares.

[blue-wave]

16. Really Kamala?

I think they call this type of old switcheroo vote pandering. Voters will see right through it. Really Kamala?

[Cha]

35. Mahalo, blue-wave!

:wave:

[delisen]

18. David Axelrod accused Geraldine Ferraro of racism in the 2008

I don't know that they ever reconciled before her death.

Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman to be on a presidential ticket (Mondale/Ferrero 1984).

[Cha]

19. Nah.. trying to kill the messenger is not working.

[Drunken Irishman]

39. She was being very prejudice.

Her comments were insulting and tinged with racism. She literally said Obama was only doing as well as he was because of the fact he was black.

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ferraro13mar13-story.html

It was completely offensive and reeked of the same attacks many blacks have faced their entire lives, specifically in regards to only making it because of the color of their skin.

Ferraro never did apologize for those comments.

[NYMinute]

21. She didn't think it through

She should have known that attacking Biden on busing meant she was fully supportive of busing … and now she has to backtrack because that is an unpopular position.

Biden is the winner of this -- finally.

[Honeycombe8]

22. Translation: She's discovered that forced busing is a losing position. nt

[R B Garr]

23. This is how obvious of a blunder this is turning

out to be. No one will accuse Axelrod or Mayor Pete’s senior communications advisor of ratfucking just for pointing out an error, especially when it saddles the party with a losing issue from 40 years ago.

[John Fante]

26. Harris will have to come up with another way to

lump Biden with racist segregationists. I'm sure she'll think of something.

[Jarqui]

29. Things like this go a good distance with me:

Richardson: Obama Saved Me During Debate
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/richardson-obama-saved-me_n_148144

As I’m chatting with Obama, the moderator says, “Governor Richardson, what do you think of that?” And I look at him like a deer in the headlights. I was about to say that I hadn’t heard, when Obama puts his hand over his mouth and says, “Katrina.” So I gave my four-point plan on Katrina. When I was done and the debate moved on, I looked over and said, “Thanks, you’re okay.” He said, “Nothing to it, brother.”

That story was originally told when Richardson endorsed Obama in Mar 2008 and said "He could have thrown me under the bus, but he stood behind me."

There seemed to be a multitude of things like this that were good predictors of the sort of President Obama would prove to be. The above demonstrated goodwill, fair play or sportsmanship. Classy and decent.

I did not get the same feeling from Kamala's behavior in the debate. It was strategized and calculated to hurt Biden long before the debate. It unfairly tied the decision for her busing to Biden when in fact, the decision was made by local politicians five years before Biden became a Senator. It inferred racial overtones. And it unfairly left her opponent 30 seconds to respond to a complex issue we haven't fully sorted out in 70 years of debate. And now, she's backpedaling closer to Biden's debate position.

Crap like that turns me off a candidate.

I thought Kamala had the best campaign kick-off. She's been great in the Senate hearings. My daughter is a new teacher so Kamala's policy to help improve teacher compensation really resonated for me. Her food fight line in the debate was great. So I didn't go into that debate down on Kamala. But she sure dialed down my enthusiasm with that stunt.

I like all of the debate candidates in some manner - not necessarily all as presidential candidates. I was kind of proud of the line ups and discussions of the issues on both nights except for this moment by Kamala.

[treestar]

34. Great story, and that's President Obama for you

[MustLoveBeagles]

43. I'm not the least bit surprised that President Obama did that

It shows what good man he is. Thanks for sharing that Jarqui.

[treestar]

31. Yeah I don't get that. Why bring up an issue no one cares about now?

Hoping it will damage Biden? Can't wait for the next debate, so at least we can talk about something else. Busing? LOL we are having history lessons from the 1970s. Hello? Dotard is President TODAY. We need him out of office NOW.

[tishaLA]

36. The responses to his tweet are good

His own followers are snacking him down for his obliviousness